JR, this is one of a group of pictures sent me by a trolley-related friend. It's an argument for keeping the power station on (normally 600-750 volts, DC).

That's what's known in the trade as a "crispy critter."

And it's not the voltage that does the work, it's the CURRENT. When you get a static electricity zap, that's thousands of volts but no current, but a charge as low as 54 volts can be fatal if it comes with enough amps. That's why accidentally shorting your wrench to ground when connecting your battery can eat up the wrench in a fraction of a second.

I spent two years looking at possible storage facilities before I bought a bus. They were all either not secure, too far away away, or too expensive (or all three). My main concern, though, was that I had been in that situation before and I knew that if the bus was any distance from my house the pace of work would slow to a crawl.

At one stage I had visited the yard of a small local coach operator to enquire about storage, and ended up having a long talk with the owner about buses. I'd told him that I was looking for a bus to convert and he'd suggested that if I could find a 'short' coach (ie. 8m or 10m long, rather than the usual 12 or 13m), it might make a much more usable and easily-handled conversion. I'd dismissed the idea at the time as the whole point of me converting a bus was to get a B-I-G vehicle, but much later I realised that a short bus might just be able to make the tight turn into the driveway of my house, which a full-size bus could never possibly have managed. Long story short, I bought one, and it did.

So I totally sympathise with the your storage security dilemma. Although there might be some things you can do to reduce the risks slightly, they can never be eliminated, and unfortunately no amount of surveillance cameras will put out the fire after the arsonist has set light to your buses.

Jeremy

PS, on the subject of metal theft, below is part of a press release I received this just morning (occasionally we get such things due to being in the magazine trade):

ProRail will be deploying SelectaDNA’s superior technology to mark trackside metals with the product’s unique DNA signature, which is highly resistant to sunlight, withstands temperatures of up to 1,000°C and can be identified and analyzed on the spot.

The unique chemical composition of the marking can be identified with a portable DNA scanner. The DNA marking is immediately visible under ultraviolet (UV) light and contains metal microdots with an engraved coding that can be analyzed with a small USB-microscope.

This technology provides Police with robust and immediate forensic proof of where stolen metal has come from, thus enabling them to prosecute criminals using an indisputable chain of evidence.

The detection and analysis technology can also be made available to scrap metal dealers so they can check for markings on metal being offered to them.

I'm not sure how to keep the thieves away from the orphans - not without considerable additional expense. Fences ain't cheap & are easily defeated.

Mine fields are a pretty good deterrent . . .

Seriously, you can set up sensor-activated spotlights (mount them on coaches) with an autodialer which will call your cell phone. For more security, you can set up a couple of webcams and a wireless aircard which will pump video to your computer at home. If there is no power at the site, use a laptop and solar panels (you would be surprised how little power you actually need, if you keep the screen turned off. Store power from the panels in a couple of bus batteries, and install them fully charged. You can get laptops cheap on craigslist.

Post a couple of signs around the perimeter saying "Webcam security system in use -- if you can read this, you are already being watched." You can also hook the computer up to a loudspeaker, and talk from your home computer to the would-be-thieves, so they know there's no point in going any closer..

If you're going to go this route I'd go for a netbook type with a SSD (solid state drive) those use very insignificant amounts of energy.

It seems things are progressing well. Really glad to hear that. Lest we all forget, it is "TORT" law that is use to recover damages. Can you just hear that scrap dealer lamenting lawyers and their unscrupulous law suits just out to unjustly enrich themselves at some poor businessman's expense. Yep, we sure gotta stop this system of corruption. Tongue in cheek on that statement, now.

John

Logged

"An uneducated vote is a treasonous act more damaging than any treachery of the battlefield.The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." Plato “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”—Pla

It gets under my skin when someone detrays my confidence, and then appears to feel no remorse. One can only hope that someday someone will be able to get through the facade of fearlessness, and touch something that will effect change.

I am truly sorry for what you are experiencing, and as a director of a private school, I hear and see stories from people that make the hair on my neck just brissle. Times sure have changed.

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For some, patience is a virtue. Dealing with me, it is required.Thank God - He is always patient.

I can guarentee that he'll come out a changed person, for the better or not, who knows, but one thing you do know for certain, he has to be held accountable for his actions, at some point we all have to take responsibility for what we do, to many young people seem to think they are above the system, it doesn't work that way. I've seen them all go thru the system at one time or another, some I've seen their dads come thru first, at one point in Marquette Branch Prison, I had 3 generations, the grandfather for murder, his son for bank robbery and his grandson for dealing drugs.

With a very limited connection to the juvenile justice system, my guess is that this young man's situation is almost hopeless. The true criminal thinker without empathy or remorse is not likely to change. It's a sad situation but you can bet he will spend the greater part of his life in prison.

I'm glad that the family is no longer enabling him. He will at first blame them for not caring about him. There is the slightest hope that someone will help him figure it out but not likely. I hate to see a young life wasted like that but I think it was inevitable.

I love it when a plan comes together. I was really hoping and pray'n for you there for a while. I have been sleeping well since you said you "hired a gun" and you shared that the law was calling you. The sad news is that if you are charged with capitol murder and have a first rate attorney and you have photographic evidence and eye witness testimony all on your behalf....your odds are still 50 50. If people are involved.... the system is imperfect. Same goes for monkeys. I think that the stats are that half of all capitol murder convictions are overturned on appeal. Fourteen percent of the men on death row are known to be innocent of the charges for which they are being executed. A friend told me that the problem with the system is that we wait too long to execute the scum. His thought was that if we kill them at the courthouse immediately after conviction then we could save all that money wasted on appeals and housing them and all that statistics crap about how many are innocent won't amt to a hill of beans. He is one of my most liberal friends.

Be well Kyle and good luck,

John

Logged

"An uneducated vote is a treasonous act more damaging than any treachery of the battlefield.The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." Plato “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”—Pla

The so called 'abuses' of the past decades brought about the appellate system we use now, the courts are so afraid of being wrong on a conviction they seem to go way overboard in making sure the convicts "rights" arn't stepped on, yeah, I know, what about the victims rights, they don't matter at that point unfortunately. One falsehood about the appellate system tho is that it can release a convict, only in very rare occasions does that happen, normally it will only result in a new trial, the appellate system doesn't determine guilt or innocence, the only thing they review is if there was an error of procedure in the trial such as the judge giving the jury wrong instructions or new found evidence that the material or witnesses had been tampered with, one error of procedure that will get the convict released is if the review of the transcript is so erronious that they are convinced beyond any doubt that the wrong man was convicted, your seeing that happening more often now that DNA testing is approved for court use. Luckily evidence in all capital cases is required to be preserved almost forever, I believe michigan law requires capital case evidence be preserved for 250 years, I know it's crazy to do that but there again how do you second guess judges.

Checked the orphanage again yesterday - no new evidence of anyone messing around. The briers are growing back nicely - that will help deter the curious.

An update:Chris has been in jail for over 9 weeks now. His court appointed attorney asked for me to agree to pre trial intervention. Due to his past of stealing from others, his dropping out of High school & the last chance high school, no job prospects & etc . . . I declined to agree to it. I figure it would only delay the trial for as long as it took him to violate the terms & have the deal rescinded . . . .

His lawyer tried to bully me concerning the legality of the buses being there. After informing him how incomplete his information was, I told him in no uncertain terms that I would not allow him to victimize me again. I then informed him that the criminal case was a matter of principal & that I would do what ever was required to ensure the proper persons are punished to the full extent of the law.

He then waived a preliminary trial, so it will stay in the circut court system. The solicitor said they would inform me when the trial date is set. The solicitor offered him a plea to two 5 year felonies - as opposed to the current charge of two 10 year felonies.

The solicitor asked me if I could reduce the $ amount of the stuff taken. I told him that if I did that, it would not only undermine the credibility of the values I have worked so hard to compile, it would also further victimize me by dismissing the effort involved in compiling those numbers - which are fairly conservative considering the rarity & the time it took to collect the parts. I told him the court could determine their own number concerning restitution that fit his ability to pay - - However, his financial standing has no bearing on the value of the stolen property.

It will be interesting to see what the court system decides.

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Life is all about finding people who are your kind of crazy

Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please (Mark Twain)